Saturday, 22 March 2014

MH 370 & 2001 Malaysian Plane Hijacking Plot

Is there any link of Malaysian MH 370 to

2001 Hijacking Plot?

It is very unlikely
there is any link between the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
and an aborted hijack plot involving Malaysia militants in late 2001, current
and former U.S. intelligence officials tell CNN.

A former British al
Qaeda operative, Saajid Badat, outlined details of the Malaysian plot in
federal court in New York last week, fueling media speculation about a possible
link.

He testified that he
spent time with a small group of Malaysians in Afghanistan and Pakistan in late
2001 tasked with hijacking aircraft in Southeast Asia.

In the weeks after 9/11, Badat was one of two British recruits
directed by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to detonate shoe bombs
simultaneously on separate passenger aircraft over the United States.

Badat never followed through with his plan, but his co-conspirator, Richard
Reid, tried and failed to do so on an American Airlines flight between Paris
and Miami in December of that year. Reid was convicted and remains in a U.S.
prison.

Badat testified that he left Afghanistan for Pakistan with several
Malaysians assigned by al Qaeda to hijack aircraft.
"They had their own group of four or five individuals which even included
a pilot," he said.

Badat said that he gave
the Malaysians one of his explosive shoes.

"So it was the
Malaysian leader and Richard Reid talking and then I was just listening in. ...
They began to discuss that what if the cockpit is locked, is closed? And it was
then, yes, unfortunately, it was me that said 'how about I give you one of my
shoes.'"

CNN first reported on
the Malaysian hijacking plot in 2012 after Badat revealed it during an earlier
trial in New York. Badat started cooperating with authorities after his arrest
in the UK in November 2003.

The plan stemmed from
the 9/11 conspiracy. According to a 9/11 Commission report, al Qaeda initially
planned to hijack a dozen airliners in Southeast Asia at the same time as in
the United States, but Osama bin Laden scrapped the non-U.S. part of the plan.

According to a senior
U.S. counterterrorism source, Mohammed originally intended the Malaysian group
to participate in the Southeast Asian attack.

In the weeks after 9/11,
he revived a whittled down version of the plan by tasking the Malaysians to
carry out a hijacking.

The source said intelligence
agencies were aware of the plot well before Badat was arrested and Malaysian
authorities took steps to neutralize the threat by making arrests.

The source added that
the Malaysian group never included a qualified pilot. Investigations revealed
the "pilot" Badat referred to in his testimony attended a flight
school in Malaysia before dropping out shortly after 9/11. Badat never met this
man.

A senior aviation
security source also said the threat from the group had been removed.

"The Malaysians got
on top of this," he told CNN.

And a U.S. intelligence
official told CNN's Barbara Starr they did not believe there was any connection
between the 2001 plot and the disappearance of Flight 370.

The 2001 Malaysia Hijacking Plot

U.S. intelligence
sources provided extensive new detail to CNN on the Malaysian terrorist cell
planning to hijack aircraft in 2001. It includes information from Badat's
lengthy debriefings with U.S. officials.

According to those
sources, the Malaysia group consisted of half a dozen young men linked to the
Indonesian al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah who travelled
for training in Afghanistan in the period before 9/11.

When they got there,
they were recruited into Mohammed's eventually aborted plan to target a dozen
aircraft in South East Asia.

After 9/11, those still
in Afghanistan were tasked with carrying out a smaller-scale version of the
plot, with the idea being that Reid and Badat would target aircraft over the
United States around the same time, the sources said.

To refine these plans,
Mohammed dispatched Reid, Badat and the Malaysians to see his nephew, Ammar al
Baluchi, in Karachi. The group travelled in a convoy of three vehicles from
Kandahar via Quetta and were lodged by al Baluchi in several safe houses in Karachi.

The Malaysian group
refused to have Reid stay with them because they judged him "too crazy
looking," according to the intelligence sources. Their ringleader was a
man in his late 20s known as Abdulaziz. He was 5 foot 6, slim, had a goatee,
wore glasses, and spoke some English.

Badat, Reid and Baluchi
met several times in a McDonald's between December 1-5, 2001. They discussed
targeting planes over the United States with shoe bombs, the sources said.

Badat later revealed
that the plan was for them to sit near the window so they could blow a hole in
the fuselage. They did not expect their devices to blow the planes out of the
sky. Rather, they hoped to bring the planes down by blowing open a large hole
to rapidly depressurize the aircraft.

Badat and Reid also
spent time with Abdulaziz and his Malaysian cell in Karachi. It was at this
time that Badat handed Abdulaziz one of his shoe bombs. Reid asked Abdulaziz
about his comrade in Malaysia who had attended flight school. Abdulaziz replied
that he did not know if the man had yet learned what he needed to.

During the meeting,
Badat got the impression the Malaysians were not too worried if, in later
trying to blow open a cockpit door with his explosive shoe, they brought down
the plane, but that was not their original intent.

But if they were going
to use one of Badat's shoes, the Malaysians had to make an additional purchase.
In Karachi, they bought an identical pair of shoes so they could match up his
explosive footwear.

Walid bin Attash, a
Yemeni al Qaeda terrorist, also assisted Mohammed in the Malaysia hijacking
plot, according to U.S. intelligence sources. Bin Attash and al-Baluchi were
arrested in Karachi in April 2003 and later transferred to Guantanamo.

Two Jemaah Islamiyah
operatives responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings - Hambali (real name: Riduan
Isamuddin) and Ali Ghufron (real name: Huda bin Abdul Haq) - are also suspected
of having had a role in the plot, according to the U.S. intelligence sources.

About Me

No one knows where the life will lead us to! But only if we work to the cause of "justice" and to give a helping hand to others, then , we can see the path of truth! We all are accustomed to follow the rules of the traditions and not be ourselves, but ,,,,,,Changing the image of the Limestone, Achieving for the Milestone! How can you achieve the Best, if you shall settle like the Rest!????!